The Ice
by Chaotic Century
Summary: Raven confronts his inner demons, with help from an unlikely source.
1. The Attack

**THE ICE**

**Written by Van, ©2003**

**ChaoticCentury.com**

I 

            The sky was so huge out here in the open.  Two moons hovered directly above Van's head, delivering a golden crimson sheen to his dark hair.  He sat on the ground placidly, a small smile playing about his lips.  When he couldn't sleep, he liked to sit quietly away from the others, listening to the wind whisper in his ears.

            About fifty feet away, Zeke stirred and opened his eyes, noticing Van.  He stood and quietly walked over to curl up next to his best friend.  Van looked at Zeke and smiled, sighing happily, as he placed a hand on Zeke's cold head and pet him lightly.

            Fiona, having been woken by the metallic clank of Zeke's footsteps, joined Van also.  She had been having a nightmare, and was glad now to have her friends' company.  "Van," she said quietly, as she gazed onto the horizon.

            "Hmm?"

            "I had that awful dream again."

            "About Raven?"  Van looked at her out of the corner of his eye.  She was now looking into her lap, face darkened with shadow.

            "Yes.  But this one was different."

            "What happened?"  Van turned to face Fiona and took her hands in his, but she pulled away.  "Are you okay?"

            She was obviously in great distress over something.  She held one hand over her forehead; her eyes were shut tight, and she was trembling all over.  "Van, something isn't right.  I can feel something – something horrible."

            "Don't worry.  You're safe here.  Zeke and I will protect you, and so will Irvine and Moonbay."

            Zeke suddenly lifted his head and stumbled to his feet.  He looked one direction and another, obviously sensing something also.  He lashed his tail then fixed his gaze in the direction that Fiona had been looking.  "Rerrrrrr!"

            "What is it, buddy?"  Van stood up.  "Fiona?"

            Fiona had leapt to her feet and was racing back to the others.  "Van!  Wake everyone up!  He's coming!"

            "What?  Who's coming?!"  He ran after her.

            Zeke followed, growling menacingly.  Without even being asked, he let out a deafening roar, opened up the jets on his back, and soared into the sky as a blast of light.  He fused with the Blade Liger, which opened its cockpit.

            Irvine and Moonbay, awakened by the noise of Zeke and the Liger, sat up.

            "What's going on?  Why are we awake?" Moonbay grumbled.

            "Raven!  Something's wrong!  Hurry up, Van!" Fiona cried, climbing agilely into the Liger's passenger seat.

            "Moonbay, you take the Gustav someplace safe.  I'll back up Van," Irvine directed, jumping into his Command Wolf.

            "Way ahead of ya, pal!"  Moonbay steered the Gustav off as fast as the Zoid could go.

            Van had by now joined Fiona in the cockpit and was strapping himself in.  "Are you _sure_ he's on his way here?  How do you know?"

            "Look!"  She pointed off into the distance.  A cloud of dust was fast approaching.  Van used the computer to zoom in on the figure, which was closing quickly.  It was the Geno Breaker.

            A picture appeared to Van's side.  It was Raven, but something was indeed terribly wrong.  His normal snide smile was absent.  Instead, his face was contorted in what appeared to be a mixture of intense rage and pain.  "Hand her … over to me!  And I won't have to destroy … you all!" he commanded.  He seemed to have difficulty speaking, so upset was he.

            "What are you talking about, Raven?  What do you want from us now?"

            "Give me … the girl!  Fiona!"

            "What?  No!  Never!  But if it's a fight you want, you've got it!  Mobilize!" Van cried, activating the Blade Liger's boosters.  It leapt forward and charged towards the Geno Breaker.

            "Van!  How can I help?" Irvine's voice crackled over the radio.

            "Set him up for a blade attack!"

            "You got it."  Irvine passed the Liger and ran around to Raven's side.  Before he could even fire a shot, however, the gun mounted on the Geno Breaker's head had shot down the Command Wolf, breaking both of its front legs.  It tumbled to the ground, unable to stand.  "Rrrrgh!" Irvine grunted in frustration, struggling with the controls.  "How can he have gotten me so fast?  Van!  I'm hit!"

            "Give me … Fiona!  I will not ask again!" Raven bellowed.  Extending one claw, the Breaker gripped the Liger's front leg.  Slowly the Zoid was reeled in, despite its vain struggles.  When it was within range, the Geno Breaker lifted its arm and jerked to one side, sending the Liger flying.  It crashed onto the ground.  The cockpit snapped open from the force of the landing.  Both Van and Fiona tumbled out.

            "Fiona," Van murmured, scarcely conscious.  "Fiona?"

            "SHADOW!" 

            Raven's organoid defused, and swooped towards the fallen pair.  Snatching Fiona tightly in its thin arms, it flew off after Raven, who was already retreating at high speed.

            "Fiona!"  Van blurrily saw Shadow soaring away, but soon blacked out.


	2. The Melting

**THE ICE**

**Written by Van, ©2003**

**ChaoticCentury.com**

II 

            The miles and hours passed.

            Raven crouched glumly, hunched over a cup of tea that sat untouched in front of him.  Almost as an afterthought, he looked up at his prisoner.  Fiona, bound at the wrists, was watching him intently.

            "Do you want some tea?" he asked her huskily, holding up the mug.

            "Raven, what's wrong?"  Fiona was not afraid, even as Shadow glowered at her for asking.

            Raven did not respond, but he began shaking.  The mug slipped out of his hand.  The tea spread slowly over the hard earth, creeping like blood from a wound.  He looked at Fiona again, and strangely, felt soothed by her shining ruby eyes.  "I don't know," he finally managed to mutter.

            "Yes you do."  Fiona's eyes never left his spare figure.  "What happened?"

            Raven found the words and thoughts and images inside him bubbling up, threatening to spill over.  He was afraid he might explode from the pain.  He closed his eyes tightly, almost daring a tear to escape.

            One did, squeezing out his right eye.  Fiona watched as it traced a path down the marking on his face.

            "What do you want with me?" she asked.

            "The … Dark Kaiser."  His voice was cracking.  "He wanted me to deliver you."

            "What are you sad about, then?"

            Raven jerked his face away from her so his shaggy, coal-colored hair masked his face.  "I'm not sad about anything."

            "I know what it is."  Fiona continued to study him.  "You feel guilty about something."

            Both Raven's hands clenched into fists and shook.  He lifted his head slowly, eyes dark and intense.  "I don't feel guilty about ANYTHING!" he roared as he lunged for her.  He struck her face with surprising force: more strongly than he had intended.  She crumpled backwards, unable to defend herself or break her fall.

            Shadow growled.

            Raven stared wide-eyed at Fiona's prone body, then, without realizing why he was doing it, crawled over to help her up.  "Fiona, I – "

            "Untie me," she interrupted, softly, sternly.

            He did not stop to think about anything; he simply crawled over to her and undid the binds.

            Fiona rubbed her wrists for a moment, then looked at Raven.  He was still staring at her, face still twisted with confusion and suffering.

            "You're in pain," she said simply.

            Raven's eyes clouded as remembrances from earlier that day flooded his vision.  The base.  The destruction.  The Geno Breaker, tearing it all to pieces.  The tiny people running to and fro, racing for cover.  And then, alone, amidst the ruin and the smoke, a little girl.  A little girl searching through the haze.  A little girl finding the remains of her parents, partially buried beneath a boulder.  The little girl's screams of shock and terror and anger.  The shrill, little screams.  "You bad Zoid!  You killed them!  You killed Mommy and Daddy!"

            "I didn't mean to," Raven murmured.  "That little girl …"  He thought back to his own childhood, remembering how much he had hated the organoid that had killed his own parents.  He felt the rage boil within him now, the rage against the organoid, the girl's rage against his Geno Breaker.  A muffled cry escaped him involuntarily.

            "Raven."  Fiona allowed him to collapse into her arms.  She rubbed her hands up and down his smooth, muscular back, as his body was racked with anguished sobs.

            "Why?  Why?  WHY DID THEY HAVE TO DIE?" he screamed, overtaken by his own grief.  

            Fiona rested her chin lightly in his thick, dark mop of hair, still stroking his back.  She continued as the wails slowed, and quieted, and became muted whimpers.  Raven, for all his toughness, was only a little boy who was lost and alone in the world.

            Raven was silent and still.  His eyes were itchy from so many tears, but he could not bring himself to move away from this place, where he could hear Fiona's heart beating soothingly next to his right ear.  Finally, he lifted his head, looking at her.  "Why?  Why be kind to me?"

            "Because I understand."  Before he could protest this, she went on, "You're not evil."

            These words stunned Raven down to his very marrow.  No one had ever seen to the depths of his soul like Fiona had just done.  She had seen the shadows, but amid the gloom, she had seen a flicker of light that had never been found before.  She was not afraid.

            He looked into her eyes again, and she was looking into his.  He saw there things he had never seen before in the eyes of another: compassion, empathy, kindness, love.  Love.  Is that what he saw?  He peered closer, into her bright, smiling eyes.  Yes.

            "Raven, I believe in you."

            Again, he was taken aback.  "You – you do?"

            "Yes.  I believe in you like I believe in Van.  I believe that you can create miracles."

            Raven's cold, gray eyes softened.

            "And the first miracle you should create is your own healing.  I see the pain and anger roiling inside you.  Open up your heart."  Fiona stopped speaking and reached her hand out, clasping Raven's.  She stroked her thumb gently over his palm.  He looked down at their hands, then up at her again.  

            "Fiona …"  How could he describe what he felt?  How could he possibly explain the warmth she exuded, the comfort she brought to his tortured soul?  What words could express how it felt to finally be understood?

            Fiona stood and took both his hands, helping him to his feet.  "Not another word," she whispered as she leaned forwards; her lips caressed his with a feather light touch.

            Raven ran one hand through his hair, dazed, as Fiona said, "Shadow, please take me back to Van."  Shadow looked at Raven, who nodded imperceptibly.

            Shadow held out his arms and Fiona allowed herself to be lifted off of the ground and cradled against his metallic body.  Spreading his bat-like wings, the black organoid blazed off into the horizon.  Raven watched them go, not even noticing the wind tenderly winding through his hair.

            And somewhere, far to the north, a tremendous glacier cracked and shattered under the weight of the water behind it.  The stream, no longer blockaded, flowed freely past the icy remains.


End file.
